Triggerless toy cap pistol



March 5, 1963 Y. GRACEY EI'AL 3,079,717

TRIGGERLESS TOY CAP PISTOL Filed May 24, 1961 Yale Groceya Wothel Rogers United States Patent Calif., and Wathel Rogers, 11376 Lemon Crest Ave., San Fernando, Calif.

Filed May 24, 1961, Ser. No. 112,272 10 Claims. (CI. 42-57) This invention relates to toy pistols of the repeater type and more particularly relates to a unique triggerless toy pistol capable of being fired by movement of the pistol to the firing position.

In the past, various trigger assemblies for toy pistols have been devised utilizing pawl and ratchet mechanisms in combination with a trigger arrangement so as to provide a toy pistol capable of firing caps. However, these prior art devices required time consuming action to fire he caps in either squeezing or pulling on the trigger to actuate the firing mechanism or withdrawing the hammer mo :1 firing position which hammer could then be actuited by the trigger assembly.

It is an object of this invention to provide a toy pistol issembly arrangement capable of firing caps within a oy pistol without squeezing or pulling on a trigger.

it is a further object of this invention to provide a riggerless toy pistol assembly capable of firing caps due 0 the acceleration and deceleration action which occurs vhen the toy pistol is moved into a fixed position for iring from the holster or other vertical position.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide t triggerless toy pistol assembly which can be rapidly anned without requiring either squeezing or pulling on a riggcr to actuate the firing mechanism.

Other objects and the nature and advantages of the nstant invention will be apparent from the following [escription taken in conjunction with the accompanying lrawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the trigger-less 0y pistol;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of a portion of the riggerless toy pistol with the outer housing removed to how the triggerlcss toy pistol assembly;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 with the caps renoved showing the weight actuated firing position of the riggerlcss toy pistol assembly;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the reverse side of the riggerless toy assembly as shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to the view of FIG. 3 showing he fanning operation of the triggerless toy pistol assemly; and

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 6--6 of lG. 5.

Similar reference characters designate corresponding arts throughout the several figures of the drawings.

The disclosed toy pistol is provided with a triggerless y pistol assembly which is described briefly as comprisig a hammer assembly, a rotatable cam means located djacent to the hammer assembly and serving to actuate 1e striking movement of the hammer assembly, and an ctuating weight means connected to the rotatable cam leans acting to rotate the rotatable cam means.

Referring to FIG. 1, 10 represents a triggerless toy istol having an outer conventional pistol shaped hous 1g 12.

Referring further to FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, a triggerless toy pistol assembly 14 is shown which includes a hammer assembly 16. The hammer assembly 16 further comprises a hammer 18, follower means in the form of a first pin member 20 which can be either fixedly connected to the hammer 18 or rotatably mounted in the hammer 18, and fanning means in the form of a fanning link 22 which is pivotably connected to the hammer 18 by pin 24. The fanning link 22 has a concave contacting portion 26 at one end thereof the function of which will be described hereafter. The fanning means further comprises a first spring means in the form of a resilient spring ele ment 28 which is connected to the fanning link 22 at the other end thereof. The resilient spring element 28 is attached to the housing 12 by means of pin 30. A serrated striking face 32 is provided at one end of the hammer 18 which is opposite from the end pinned to the link 22. The hammer 18 is also provided with a pivot pin 34 which is connected to housing 12 and which is located substantially intermediate the ends of the hammer 18. A stop pin 36 is connected to the housing 12 and serves to retain the fanning link 22 in an operable position.

The triggerless toy pistol assembly 14 further comprises a rotatable cam means generally designated by numeral 38. The rotatable cam means 38 includes cam shaped teeth members 40 formed on the periphery of a disc 42 which is rotatably attached to the housing 12 by a pin 44. Attached to the disc 42 or integrally formed therewith is a cap advancing drum 46 having a plurality of projecting pins 43 located on the periphery of the drum 46. The same number of projecting pins 48 is provided as the number of cam shaped teeth members 40 and both the cam shaped teeth members 40 and the projecting pins 48 are positioned about the periphery of the drum 46 so as to provide each projecting pin 48 to be located in substantial alignment with a cam shaped tooth member 40. The reason for this arrangement will be described below.

Still further comprising the triggerlcss toy pistol assembly 14 is the actuating weight means generally designated by numeral 50. The actuating weight means 50 includes a pendulum link member 52 which is connected at one end to the pin 44 of the rotatable cam means 38. FIG. 4 shows the pendulum link member 52 to be positioned adjacent one side of disc 42 and is in sliding frictional contact therewith. A counter-weight 54 is attached to the other end of the pendulum link member 52. A pivotable pawl assembly generally designated as npmber 56 comprises a pivot pin member 58 connected to the pendulum link member 52. A pawl element 60 is pivotally connected to the pendulum link member 52 by pivot pin member 58. Second spring means in the form of a resilient V-shaped spring element 62 is located adjacent said pawl element 60 and one leg of the V-shaped spring element 62 is biased against said pawl element 60 with the other leg of the V-shaped spring element 62 being against counter-weight 54. The operation of the pawl assembly will be explained below. Stops 66 and 67 are located in the housing 12 to control the movement of the counter-weight 54. A cap feeding assembly 68 is mounted on housing 12 adjacent fanning link 22. FIG. 2 illustrates this feature and its cooperation with the cap advancing drum 46. The cap feeding assembly 68 includes a pin 69 onto which the roll of caps 70 is inserted. The roll of caps has a perforation between each cap.

The free end of the roll of caps is threaded around the cap advancing drum 46 with the pins 48 of the drum 46 projecting through the perforations between the caps 7'1 Moving the pistol 19 into a fixed position for firing will cause the counter-weight 54 to move in the direction of the arrow A away from its resting position against stop 66. This occurs simply by rule of one of Newtons principles that a body in motion will tend to remain in motion. Hence, by bringing the pistol 10 to a halt in a firing position will cause the counter-weight 54 to move in a direction away from its rest position until it contacts the stop 67. The pendulum like travel of the counter-weight will cause rotation of the rotatable cam means 38 because of engagement between the pawl element 60 with one of the cam shaped tooth members 40 as best shown in FIG. 3. Spring element 62 acts to bias the pawl element 60 into engagement with one of the cam-shaped members 40. The pin member 20 on the hammer 18 is in engagement with one of the cam-shaped members, and upon rotation thereof the pin member travels along the cam face of one of the tooth members 40. Rotation of the cam-shaped members 4!! will cause pin member 20 and the hammer 18 connected to pin 20 to be moved into striking position as the pin member 20 moves along the slanted portion of cam-shaped member 40. When the pin member 20 reaches the peak portion of cam-shaped member 40, the hammer 18 will drop due to the action of spring 28 and fire the cap 70 located under the serrated face 32 of the hammer on the drum 46. The cooperation between the projecting pins 48 and the perforations on the roll of caps 70 will permit the hammer 18 to always strike the explosive pocket portion of the caps 70 which will be located intermediate the projecting pins 48 and in the area substantially between the cam-shaped members 40 about the periphery of the drum 46. This operation can be best seen by reference to FIG. 3.

Thus, in firing the gun, it is merely removed from its vertical position in a holster and by action of abrupt movement into the horizontal firing position, the counterweight swings against stop 67 thereby rotating the cam means 40 to actuate the hammer and at the same time advancing the roll of caps. Immediately after the firing has taken place. the counter-weight 54 returns by gravity to its rest position adjacent the stop 66, and the pawl 60 moves back to the position shown in FIG. 2 into contact with the next cam tooth 40.

The firing of the gun can also be accomplished in a similar manner by moving the gun from a vertical position over the head to a horizontal firing position.

For a rapid firing by fanning, the pistol may be fanned by moving the hammer rearwardly and then releasing it. This will cause hammer 18 to pivot about pin 34 and thus move the fanning link 22 in a direction away from its rest position. The concave portion 26 of the fanning link 22 which contacts against pin 58 of the pawl assembly 56 will cause movement of the actuating weight means 50 and this will cause rotation of the rotatable cam means 38 and therefore place the explosive pocket portion of the caps 70 in line with the serrated striking face 32 of the hammer 18 for firing action. This may be repeated as soon as the counter-weight 54 has returned by gravity so that the pawl is in engagement with the next cam tooth 40.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and therefore the invention is not limited to what is shown in the drawings and described in the specification, but only as indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A triggerless toy pistol assembly adapted to be fired automatically as the pistol is brought to a horizontal firing position from a vertical rest position, comprising a hammer assembly, rotatable cam means located adjacent said hammer assembly for actuating striking movement of said hammer assembly by rotation of said cam means and actuating pendulum weight means connected to said rotatable cam means for rotating said cam means due to swinging movement of said pendulum weight means, said hammer assembly comprising a hammer and follower means for actuatingsaid hammer connected to said hammer and actuated by said rotatable cam means.

2. A triggerless toy pistol assembly in accordance with claim 1 and further comprising fanning means connected to said hammer assembly in operative relation with said actuating pendulum weight means whereby manual movement of said hammer assembly operates through said fanning means to move said pendulum weight means thereby rotating said cam means.

3. A triggerless toy pistol assembly as defined in claim 2, wherein said hammer is provided with a striking face at one end of said hammer, said follower means comprises a pin member located adjacent to said striking face of said hammer, and said fanning means comprises a fanning link connected to said hammer at the other end thereof, said fanning link having a portion at one end adapted to engage said actuating pendulum weight means, and spring means connected to the other end of said fanning link urging said fanning link from engagement with said actuating weight means.

4. A triggerless toy pistol assembly as defined in claim 3, wherein said actuating weight means comprises a pendulum link member connected at one end to said rotatable cam means, a counter-weight connected to the other end of said pendulum link member, and a pivotable pawl assembly attached to said pendulum link member and located between said counter-weight and said rotatable cam means.

5. A triggerless toy pistol assembly as defined in claim 4 wherein said pivotable pawl assembly comprises a pivot pin member attached to said pendulum link, a pawl element pivotably connected to said pivot pin member, and second spring means adapted to pivot said pawl element into engagement with said rotatable cam means.

6. A triggerless toy pistol assembly as defined in claim 5, wherein said pivot pin member of said pivotable pawl assembly extends from the pendulum link so as to engage the portion at one end of said fanning link, a fixed pivot pin member connected to said hammer substantially intermediate said one end and said other end thereof, a second pivot pin member pivotably connects said hammer with said fanning link, and a cap feeding assembly located adjacent to said fanning link.

7. A triggerless toy pistol assembly as defined in claim 1, wherein said pendulum actuating weight means comprise a pendulum link member connected at one end to said rotatable cam means, a counter-weight connected to the other end of said pendulum link member, and a pivotable pawl assembly attached to said pendulum link member and located between said counter-weight and said rotatable cam means.

8. A triggerless toy pistol assembly as defined in claim 7, wherein said pivotable pawl assembly comprises a pivot pin member attached to said pendulum link, a pawl element pivotably connected to said pivot pin member, and second spring means adapted to pivot said pawl element into engagement with said rotatable cam means.

9. A triggerless toy pistol assembly as defined in claim 1, wherein a cap feeding assembly is located adjacent said rotatable cam means and said hammer assembly whereby as said hammer assembly is actuated the striking movement thereof engages and fires a cap.

10. A triggerless toy pistol assembly adapted to be fired automatically as the pistol is brought to a horizontal firing position from a vertical rest position and by fanning, comprising a hammer assembly, rotatable cam 5 6 means located adjacent said hammer assembly, means on movement thereof through its swinging movement to said hammer assembly in engagement with the cam rotate said rotatable cam means. means for actuating striking movement of said hammer assembly by rotation of said cam means, and actuating References Cited the me of this Pfiifint pendulum weight means connected to said rotatable cam 5 UNITED STAT S PATEN means for rotating said cam means when said weight 7 means swings due to movement from said vertical rest fi gj 5: position to a horizontal firing position, and farming 2 5 6 159 means connected to said hammer assembly in operative 5%, z Dec Q relation with said actuating pendulum weight means for 10 

1. A TRIGGERLESS TOY PISTOL ASSEMBLY ADAPTED TO BE FIRED AUTOMATICALLY AS THE PISTOL IS BROUGHT TO A HORIZONTAL FIRING POSITION FROM A VERTICAL REST POSITION, COMPRISING A HAMMER ASSEMBLY, ROTATABLE CAM MEANS LOCATED ADJACENT SAID HAMMER ASSEMBLY FOR ACTUATING STRIKING MOVEMENT OF SAID HAMMER ASSEMBLY BY ROTATION OF SAID CAM MEANS AND ACTUATING PENDULUM WEIGHT MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID ROTATABLE CAM MEANS FOR ROTATING SAID CAM MEANS DUE TO SWINGING MOVEMENT OF SAID PENDULUM WEIGHT MEANS, SAID HAMMER ASSEMBLY COMPRISING A HAMMER AND FOLLOWER MEANS FOR ACTUATING SAID HAMMER CONNECTED TO SAID HAMMER AND ACTUATED BY SAID ROTATABLE CAM MEANS. 